Complaints In Simplicity
by Nobody Apologist
Summary: Meeting the future loves of your life at the same time is miraculous in and of itself. Meeting them because of the many problems your high school has does dampen the spirit of the event a little though.


**AN: A thing I wrote back in July that I never published**

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><p>Their first meeting was duller than Lovino could have ever imagined. Although, considering who Gilbert was, the dullness of it could have been considered miraculous. But since it didn't consist of handsome, mysterious strangers, or any of the great romantic cliches he'd fallen in love with over the years, Lovino had considered it to be a rather meaningless encounter that would slip his mind. Not to mention it had transpired in one of the least romantic locations on the face of the Earth: a high school cafeteria.<p>

Lovino blamed his unreasonably high expectations on Antonio; all those romance movie marathons in their childhood had had a much bigger effect on Lovino than he would like to admit.

But the encounter would never really slip his mind. In fact, he would take the time to sit and ponder about its simplicity some days. After all, one lunch hour spent complaining about how much they hated their school was not how he expected to meet his lovers.

It hadn't been on their first day of high school, as that would have been at least one cliche that Lovino could have grabbed onto. It was actually about midway through November, a day or two after the first snowfall of the year. Many of the students hadn't bothered to go out and buy new boots yet so most of them opted to stay in for lunch that day, which caused the cafeteria to become much more crowded than it usually was.

Lovino had parked himself at the smallest, emptiest table he could find after he decided that if he had to share a table with other people, the less seats the better. He pulled his container of pasta out his bag, and spent a few moments wrestling with the choice of eating it cold or suffering through the line for the only working microwave. He pulled out a fork soon after and shoveled the spaghetti into his mouth as he turned his attention to the math textbook in front of him. He was on the verge of understanding decomposition when the sound of a tray being placed on the table drew his attention away.

A blonde boy, who Lovino was pretty sure he had passed by once or twice in the halls, slid into the seat on Lovino's right. He nodded at Lovino in acknowledgement before he turned to his own book. Lovino shifted his focus back to the taunting equations in front of him, but not before making a note on his hand that the newest installment of that fantasy series his brother had convinced him to read was out.

Lovino heard angry muttering approaching mere moments later. Evidently, the blonde boy hadn't since he jumped upon hearing the clatter of the new tray as it was dropped onto the table. The irritated albino, who Lovino had definitely seen around the school before, sank into the seat on Lovino's left. He bypassed the unappetizing looking sandwich on his tray, and tore open the chip bag. He stuffed a handful in his mouth and swallowed soon after.

"Why is it so fucking crowded in here?"

The first words weren't as romantic as Lovino had always hoped they would be.

"Because most of these bastards haven't gotten their shit together yet and are still walking around in shorts," Lovino responded once he'd swallowed his own food.

There definitely weren't any romantic first words exchanged.

"Apparently people are still surprised by the winter, even though it happens every year," the blonde boy added as he turned the page of his book.

His first words with Antonio had been more romantic than this, and that conversation had consisted of them saying the word "tomato" to each other for a good twenty minutes.

The three of them fell silent after that. Lovino turned back to his math book for the third time, but soon found it hard to concentrate, as he always did with math. He glanced to his right and looked at the blonde boy properly for the first time. He was fairly average looking (but that was really all you could hope for in high school) with an oversized red hoodie on and a pair of glasses that kept sliding down his nose to match. Lovino was almost jealous of how nice the blonde's hair looked. The last time he'd let his hair grow that long it had gone from neat curls to tangles that covered his head in a matter of days.

Lovino looked over at the boy on his left, who wasn't exactly average looking. He wasn't handsome (once again, it _was_ high school), but his hair and his eyes certainly drew people's attention to him. Judging by how loud his muttering had been, Lovino was sure that the guy's voice also helped him grab attention.

Unlike the blonde across from him, the albino didn't have a book that occupied his attention, so Lovino had to turn back to his textbook the minute the other boy moved his head.

"This tastes like shit," the red eyed boy announced, dropping his sandwich back on the tray. Lovino only then noticed the German accent, but the thoughts of his younger brother's annoying friend disappeared upon hearing the blonde boy respond.

"It's probably better than this," he said. Without lifting his eyes from the pages of his book, he held up the half eaten hamburger the had more bread than it did meat. If it could even be called meat.

"I can guarantee this is better than both of them." Lovino made a mindless gesture towards his lunch, unsure why he decided to get involved in the conversation.

"Pass it over," the German boy demanded.

"It's cold," Lovino warned. He slid the half empty container towards the impatient boy, who couldn't possibly understand the sacrifice Lovino was making for him. After all, he couldn't use his fork after this.

"It'll probably be better than this sad excuse of a fucking grilled cheese." He plunged the fork under the noodles and lifted it up. He faltered for a second as some of the pasta fell off the fork and back into the container, but shoved the forkful in his mouth nonetheless. His eyes widened as he chewed. "This is awesome," he managed to exclaim through a mouthful of spaghetti and tomato sauce.

"Can I try some?" the blonde boy asked, his eyes no longer on his book.

Lovino shrugged, and the boy used a piece of ripped paper to mark his spot as the albino placed the fork back in the container before sending it across the table. After successfully managing to twirl the pasta around the fork, the boy with the glasses agreed wholeheartedly on the quality of the food. He put the fork back into the near empty container, and pushed it in Lovino's direction.

Lovino shook his head. "You two can fight over it."

Before any fighting could occur, the boy on the left snatched the food away from the boy on the right.

"Well, congrats on being smart enough to bring your own lunch," the blonde said. He drummed his fingers on the cover of his book.

"Flattery won't get you anywhere," Lovino replied, and was immediately embarrassed that he'd used such a cheesy line.

"It might get us more food though," the German boy protested as he slid the pasta back towards the blonde. "You should bring more of this tomorrow. Like, a lot more."

"Why?"

"You wouldn't willingly submit us to having to eat gross cafeteria food, would you?"

Lovino shrugged. "Depends." He accepted the now empty container from the boy with the glasses, and shoved it back inside his bag once he'd put the lid on properly.

"I've had much worse, but the food here's pretty awful," the blonde remarked.

"Just like the rest of this fucking school," Lovino muttered.

"I'm pretty sure they haven't cleaned the bathrooms since we got here."

"They haven't," the German interjected. "I spilled orange juice on the floor of the upstairs bathroom on my first day here and the stain's still there."

"Why the fuck did you have orange juice in the bathroom?"

Despite how annoyed he may have sounded, Lovino was actually pretty relieved that he'd finally found the person responsible for ruining his newest pair of shoes. The curiosity had kept him up the night after the incident.

"Well, after almost being run over by a bunch of grade twelve's on their way to lunch, I figured I'd probably like eating lunch in the bathroom more than eating out here."

"What made you change your mind?" the boy in the hoodie asked.

"Once people were allowed to have lunch off campus I migrated down here," the albino explained, while he poked his previously untouched sandwich. "The restaurants around here are too expensive for me. And the cheaper ones are too far away."

"They couldn't have built this school in a worse place." Lovino closed his math textbook after deciding that a spiteful conversation about the school his parents had always wanted him to go to was much better than memorizing confusing formulas.

"Really though," the boy on his left agreed. "Like, let's advertise how many scholarships we give out to students who normally wouldn't be able to go here and then have the school right smack in the middle of some of the most expensive food places in town."

"It's also really hard to get to, if you're not walking," the other boy added, and adjusted his glasses before continuing. "The traffic around here is a nightmare."

"I'd say the real nightmare is how many stairs there are here," Lovino argued. "The walk from Math to the Chemistry lab makes me feel like I just exercised for five fucking hours."

"And you can't even walk because the asshole teachers around here will give you detention for being a second late," the German boy added. He'd moved on from poking and was now tearing his sandwich into small pieces.

"Some of them aren't so bad," the blonde boy replied. "Gym is horrible though."

"I'm pretty sure that guy could crack all of our skulls if he wanted to," the albino agreed. "I'm also willing to bet that they just hired the scariest looking guy they found for the job."

Lovino was about to protest that the principal himself was the scariest looking staff member, but the bell signalling the end of the first half of lunch rang. The German boy leaped out of his chair.

"Shit, I've got tutoring and she's going to be pissed if I'm late again." He scooped up his try and hastily made his exit. "I was serious about you bringing more pasta tomorrow, you know," he called over his shoulder.

"Goddamn it, Al," the boy on his right muttered. Lovino turned to see him press something on his phone before he gathered all of his things. "My younger brother's sick again so I have to take him home," he explained before, he too, rushed off.

Lovino sighed, and opened up his math book once again. But he made a note on his hand to sneak more pasta into his bag the next morning, and to ask the names of the boys who'd ate and complained with him before shifting his focus to the question he'd been stuck on half an hour ago.


End file.
